Method and apparatus for providing privacy for a telephone number in a network

ABSTRACT

A method and an apparatus for providing privacy for a telephone number in a network are disclosed. The method receives a call associated with a disposable telephone number, and determines a call processing feature for the disposable phone number in accordance with a filtering function. The method then processes the call in accordance with the call processing feature for the disposable phone number.

The present invention relates generally to communication networks and,more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing privacy for atelephone number in a network, e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) network,a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, and the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A customer may wish to protect the privacy of his/her telephone numberwhile accessing network based services, e.g., Voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP) services. For example, a customer may subscribe to aVoIP service but may not wish to share his/her telephone number with allcallers. For example, once the customer's number is made known,undesirable callers (e.g., advertisers) may direct calls to thecustomer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, the present invention discloses a method and anapparatus for providing privacy for a telephone number in a network. Themethod receives a call associated with a disposable telephone number,and determines a call processing feature for the disposable phone numberin accordance with a filtering function. The method then processes thecall in accordance with the call processing feature for the disposablephone number.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The teaching of the present invention can be readily understood byconsidering the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network related to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary network in accordance with oneembodiment of the current invention for providing privacy for atelephone number;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method for providing privacy for atelephone number in a network; and

FIG. 4 illustrates a high-level block diagram of a general-purposecomputer suitable for use in performing the functions described herein.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention broadly discloses a method and apparatus forproviding privacy for a telephone number in a network. Although thepresent invention is discussed below in the context of Internet Protocol(IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks, the present invention is notso limited. Namely, the present invention can be applied to packetnetworks in general, e.g., Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks,Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks, and the like.

To better understand the present invention, FIG. 1 illustrates anexample network 100, e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) MultimediaSubsystem network related to the present invention. An IP network isbroadly defined as a network that uses Internet Protocol to exchangedata packets. Exemplary IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks includeInternet protocol (IP) networks such as Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) networks, Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks, and thelike.

In one embodiment, the network 100 may comprise a plurality of endpointdevices 102-104 configured for communication with the core IMS network110 (e.g., an IP based core backbone network supported by a serviceprovider) via an access network 101. Similarly, a plurality of endpointdevices 105-107 are configured for communication with the IMS corepacket network 110 via an access network 108. The network elements 109and 111 may serve as gateway servers or edge routers for the network110.

The endpoint devices 102-107 may comprise customer endpoint devices suchas personal computers, laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs), and the like. The access networks 101 and 108 serve as a meansto establish a connection between the endpoint devices 102-107 and theNetwork Elements (NEs) 109 and 111 of the IMS core network 110. Theaccess networks 101 and 108 may each comprise a Digital Subscriber Line(DSL) network, a broadband cable access network, a Local Area Network(LAN), a Wireless Access Network (WAN), a 3^(rd) party network, and thelike. The access networks 101 and 108 may be either directly connectedto NEs 109 and 111 of the IMS core network 110, or indirectly throughanother network.

Some NEs (e.g., NEs 109 and 111) reside at the edge of the IMS coreinfrastructure and interface with customer endpoints over various typesof access networks. An NE that resides at the edge of a coreinfrastructure is typically implemented as an edge router, a mediagateway, a proxy, a border element, a firewall, a switch, and the like.An NE may also reside within the network (e.g., NEs 118-120) and may beused as a SIP server, a core router, or like device.

The IMS core network 110 also comprises a Home Subscriber Server (HSS)127, a Serving-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) 121, a MediaServer (MS) 125, and an Application Server 112 that contains a database115. An HSS 127 refers to a network element residing in the controlplane of the IMS network that acts as a central repository of allcustomer specific authorizations, service profiles, preferences, etc.

The S-CSCF 121 resides within the IMS core infrastructure and isconnected to various network elements (e.g., NEs 109 and 111) using theSession Initiation Protocol (SIP) over the underlying IMS based corebackbone network 110. The S-CSCF 121 may be implemented to registerusers and to provide various services (e.g. VoIP services). The S-CSCFinteracts with the appropriate VoIP/SoIP service related applicationsservers (e.g., 112) when necessary. The S-CSCF 121 performs routing andmaintains session timers. The S-CSCF may also interrogate an HSS toretrieve authorization, service information, user profiles, etc. Inorder to complete a call that requires certain service specificfeatures, the S-CSCF may need to interact with various applicationservers (e.g. various VoIP servers). For example, the S-CSCF may need tointeract with another server for translation of an E.164 voice networkaddress into an IP address, and so on.

The Media Server (MS) 125 is a special server that typically handles andterminates media streams to provide services such as announcements,bridges, and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) messages for VoIP serviceapplications. The media server also interacts with customers for mediasession management to accomplish tasks such as process requests.

The application server 112 may comprise any server or computer that iswell known in the art, and the database 115 may be any type ofelectronic collection of data that is also well known in the art. Thoseskilled in the art will realize that the communication system 100 may beexpanded by including additional endpoint devices, access networks,network elements, application servers, etc. without altering the scopeof the present invention.

The above IP network is described to provide an illustrative environmentin which packets for voice and data services are transmitted on IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks. However, a customer may wish toprotect the privacy of his/her telephone number while accessing IMSnetwork based services, e.g., VoIP services and any other services. Forexample, a customer may subscribe to a VoIP service but may not wish toshare his/her telephone number with all callers. In one embodiment, thecustomer may then request to create a personal and disposable telephonenumber.

In one example, the customer may wish to create a number forcommunicating with members of a social network, e.g., members of adating site. In another example, the telephone number may be for aspecific temporary need, e.g., for participating in an auction forbuying/selling goods such as on an online auction site. In anotherexample, the customer may wish to create a personal and disposablenumber for new acquaintances, for chat rooms, etc.

One method for providing the customer with a disposable phone number issimply to assign the customer with an extra phone number as a disposablephone number and linking the disposable phone number to the customer'sregular phone number. This service model enables the customer to keepthe regular phone number private. However, if the disposable phonenumber is distributed to undesirable callers (e.g., advertisers), thecustomer may receive unwanted calls. The customer may then bedissatisfied with the service. In addition, the customer may incur costfor the unwanted calls. For example, a customer using a cellular phonepays for a call regardless of who originated the call, e.g., in terms ofusing up allotted air time associated with the customer.

In one embodiment, the current method provides privacy of the customer'stelephone number while enabling the customer to access other value-addedservices. Specifically, the method provides the customer with a personaland disposable telephone number with an inbound call filtering featureor function. In order to more clearly describe the current invention,the following networking terminologies are first provided.

-   -   E.164; and    -   ENUM (tElephone NUmbering Mapping).

E.164 refers to an ITU (International Telecommunications Union)-Trecommendation which defines the international public telecommunicationnumbering plan for formatting telephone numbers such that they may besignaled across one or more networks. The E.164 format includes acountry code and subsequent digits, but not the international prefix.

ENUM refers to a standard protocol defined by the Internet EngineeringTask Force (IETF) for translating phone numbers that are in E.164 formatto Internet domain names such that a Domain Name Server (DNS) mayresolve the IP addresses for E.164 numbers the same way it resolvestraditional website domains. For example, ENUM may be used to transforma phone, a fax or a pager number into a URI (Uniform ResourceIdentifier).

In order to translate a phone number to an Internet Domain name, thephone number is first provided in an E.164 format. Specifically, thephone number is first translated or converted to a full E.164 formattednumber. For example, the original phone number may not have indicated acountry code, area code, etc. However, an E.164 formatted phone numberincludes a country code, area code and the specific number within thearea code. For example, “1” is the country code for all phone numbers inthe United States of America (USA). If the original USA phone number is987-555-1234, it is translated to an E.164 formatted number yielding1-987-555-1234. The E.164 number is then reduced to digits only, e.g.,19875551234. The digits are then reordered back to front, e.g.43215557891. Once the digits are reordered, dots are placed between eachdigit and the Internet domain e164.arpa is added to the end. For theabove example, the resulting Internet domain is4.3.2.1.5.5.5.7.8.9.1.e164.arpa.

An ENUM server may then be queried by the S-CSCF to resolve on thedomain name 4.3.2.1.5.5.5.7.8.9.1.e164.arpa. For example, an IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS) network may use an ENUM server to resolvephone number that is in E.164 format, i.e. the contact information ofthe phone number. The S-CSCF may then query a DNS for the regularrouting of the contact information resided in the NAPTR (NamingAuthority Pointer) resource records, e.g. the SIP URI. In sum, theS-CSCF will send the ENUM query and the ENUM server will return theNAPTR resource records if the E164 number is registered, where theS-CSCF then queries the DNS for the destination of the returned records,e.g., the SIP URI.

It should be noted that the customer may have a set of NAPTR resourcerecords. For example, the customer may have a SIP address, a telephonenumber, a presence service number, an email address, etc. The query maythen retrieve the set of NAPTR resource records for the customer. Table1 below provides an illustrative example of a query and a response forthe above phone number.

TABLE 1 An example of ENUM query and response Query ORIGIN4.3.2.1.5.5.5.7.8.9.1.e164.arpa Response IN NAPTR 100 10 “u” Active“E2U+SIP” “!{circumflex over ( )}.*$!sip:user@example.com!” IN NAPTR 10020 “u” Active “E2U+pres” “!{circumflex over( )}.*$!pres:user@example.com!” IN NAPTR 100 30 “u” Inactive“E2U+mailto” “!{circumflex over ( )}.*$!mailto:user@example.com!”

It should be noted that Table 1 above illustrates a response having aplurality of NAPTR resource records. In this illustrative example, eachNAPTR resource record contains information pertaining to an order (e.g.,represented by the value “100”) followed by a preference (e.g.,represented by the values “10”, “20”, and “30”). In one embodiment, theNAPTR resource records are organized based on the order field and thepreference field, e.g., from a lowest order value to a highest ordervalue and from a lowest preference value to a highest preference value.For example, in operation, the lowest value (e.g., “10” in this example)in the preference field will be executed first and then followed by thenext lowest preference field (e.g., “20” in this example), and so on.This approach allows a call to be directed to a plurality of possibledestinations based upon a preferred order or sequence that can beselectively set by the user.

Furthermore, in one embodiment, each NAPTR resource record may also havean activation field that indicates whether a NAPTR resource record is“active” or “inactive.” An “active” field indicates that the NAPTRresource record can be used, whereas an “inactive” field indicates thatthe NAPTR resource record should not be used. Again, this approachallows a user to selectively activate or deactivate a NAPTR resourcerecord. For example, a user may be travelling on a business trip for anextended period of time and does not want calls directed to the user'shome number while the user is travelling. As such, the user canselectively designate a NAPTR resource record associated with the user'shome number to be “inactive”, during the business trip. Upon return fromthe business trip, the user can selectively designate the NAPTR resourcerecord associated with the user's home number to be “active” again.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary network 200 in accordance with oneembodiment of the current invention for providing privacy for atelephone number. In one embodiment, the network 200 comprises a UserEndpoint (UE) device 102 communicating with an IMS network 110 via anaccess network 101. The IMS network 110 comprises an HSS 127, a S-CSCF121, an ENUM server 228, a DNS 229, an application server 212 and an MS225 interconnected for providing VoIP services to customers.

The current method provides privacy for customer telephone numbers byproviding the customer with a personal and disposable telephone numberwith a feature or function for filtering inbound calls. The method firstenables the customer to subscribe to a service and to register adisposable telephone number at a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 127located in the IMS network 110. The customer may register for adisposable phone number, preferences for filtering the inbound callsdirected to the disposable phone number, one or more devices to be rungwhen a call is received, customized announcements to be played tocallers, and the like.

The method may then implement filtering of inbound calls destined to adisposable telephone number in the application server 212. In oneembodiment, the application server 212 may provide execution logic forcalls destined to a disposable telephone number that filters inboundcalls based on the identity of the caller. For example, a caller ID(identification) feature may be used in conjunction with the disposabletelephone number to block calls from a predetermined list of callers.For example, the customer may provide a list of possible callers fromwhom the customer prefers not to receive a call. Likewise, the customermay provide a list of possible callers from whom the customer prefers toreceive a call, e.g., those serious buyers or callers whom the customerwants to pursue a more serious relationship.

In another embodiment, the application server 212 may provide executionlogic for calls destined to a disposable telephone number that filterscalls based on a caller's response to one or more queries. For example,the customer may provide a prerecorded announcement to be played to allcallers to the disposable phone number via the Media Server (MS) 225.The announcement may request an input from the caller that identifiesthe purpose of the call. The caller may then enter a response to therequest/query via an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, telephonekeypad, etc. Once the purpose of the call is determined, the call maythen be handled based on the response. For example, if the customer isselling a car, the customer may have a preference indicating that callsregarding the car are to be forwarded to the customer's cell phonenumber, while other calls are to be forwarded to a voice mail. Theexecution logic in the application server 212 may then be based on theresponse from the caller to the request announced via the IVR system inMS 225. For example, the IVR system may present the caller with thefollowing selections: 1) “Please press one if this call is a personalcall”, 2) “Please press two if this call is a work related call”, 3)“Please press three if this call relates to a car offered for sale”. Ifthe caller selects the third option, then the call will be immediatelyforwarded to the customer's cell phone number. Selection of the othertwo options can be handled according to the customer's preference, e.g.,selection of the second option will forward the call to a business phonenumber of the customer, whereas selection of the first option willforward the call to a home phone number of the customer, and so on.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the Serving-CallSession Control Function (S-CSCF) 121 receives a call for an E.164 phonenumber, it will query the HSS 127 to determine whether the call isassociated with a disposable phone number. S-CSCF 121 then queries theENUM server 228 for the contact information of the phone number. If theE164 number is registered, then the ENUM server 228 will be able toretrieve the associated NAPTR resource records.

If the call is associated with a disposable phone number, the ENUMserver 228 marks the one or more NAPTR resource records with a flag thatindicates the returned one or more Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)are to be processed in accordance with call processing features andprocedures for a disposable phone number. Otherwise, the one or moreNAPTR resource records are not marked with a flag. The ENUM server 228then returns the NAPTR resource records to the S-CSCF 121.

If the returned one or more NAPTR resource records include the flag, theS-CSCF 121 then queries the application server 212 for execution logicfor the call destined to the disposable phone number. The executionlogic may then be determined based on the customer's preference forfiltering inbound calls. The application server 212 provides theexecution logic to the S-CSCF 121. Active and inactive NAPTR records canbe resided in the ENUM server 228 according to the caller identity orthe preference of the customer. Only the active NAPTR resource recordswill be processed according to the application logic and returned to theS-CSCF for further call processing/routing.

The S-CSCF 121 may then query the DNS 229 for routing information of thecall in accordance with the execution logic received from theapplication server 212. In one example, the execution logic may indicatethat the call is to be forwarded to the customer's cell phone. TheS-CSCF 121 may then send a SIP invite message towards the customer'scell phone via an S-CSCF for the cellular network 230. In one example,the S-CSCF will use the combined [order, preference] field, e.g., [100,10] in the above example, to implement the first end point to bereached, if the first preferred device is not available, then the S-CSCFwill scan the next one in the combined [order, preference] field, e.g.,[100, 20]. In one example, the execution logic may indicate that thecall is to be blocked. The S-CSCF 121 may then notify the caller thatthe called party is not available and terminate the call, and so on. Inone example, the S-CSCF may direct the media server 225 to play acustomized announcement, e.g., informing any potential buyer thatadvertised merchandise is no longer available.

In one embodiment, the customer may use the same service provider forboth the VoIP service and the cellular service. In that case, one S-CSCFmay provide both services and thus the same S-CSCF may forward the abovecall towards the customer's cell phone. For example, the S-CSCFs 121 and230 may be in one system and/or in one network without any loss ofgenerality.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method 300 for providing privacy fora telephone number in a network. The current method provides privacy forcustomer telephone numbers by providing a disposable telephone numberservice with a feature or function for filtering inbound calls. Forexample, one or more steps of method 300 can be implemented by a S-CSCF.Method 300 starts in step 305 and proceeds to step 310.

In step 310, method 300 receives a call associated with a disposabletelephone number service wherein the service has a feature for filteringinbound calls. For example, a Serving-Call Session Control Function(S-CSCF) receives a call for an E.164 phone number. The S-CSCF willquery the HSS to determine whether the call is associated with adisposable phone number.

In step 320, method 300 performs inbound call processing on the call.For example, the S-CSCF may query an ENUM server for resolution of theE.164 number to a URI. The ENUM server finds one or more NAPTR resourcerecords. If the call is associated with a disposable phone number, theENUM server may mark the one or more NAPTR resource records receivedfrom the DNS with a flag that indicates the returned one or more UniformResource Identifiers (URIs) are associated with a disposable phonenumber and are to be processed in accordance with call processingfeatures and procedures for the disposable phone number. The ENUM serverthen returns only the active NAPTR resource records (with flags if thecall is to a disposable phone number) to the S-CSCF.

In step 330, method 300 determines a call processing feature for thedisposable phone number in accordance with the feature for filteringinbound calls. For example, if the returned one or more NAPTR resourcerecords include the flag, the S-CSCF then queries the application serverfor execution logic for the call destined to the disposable phonenumber. For example, the execution logic may be based on the customer'spreference for filtering inbound calls. The application server providesthe execution logic to the S-CSCF.

In step 340, method 300 processes the call in accordance with the callprocessing feature for the disposable phone number. For example, theexecution logic received from the application server may indicate thatthe call is to be forwarded to the customer's cell phone. The S-CSCF 121may then send a SIP invite message towards the customer's cell phone viaan S-CSCF for the cellular network. It should be noted that the S-CSCFwill use the combined [order, preference] field to determine the firstend point to be reached if a plurality of active NAPTR resource recordsis returned to the S-CSCF. In another example, the execution logic mayindicate that the call is to be blocked or be forwarded to a voice mailsystem. The S-CSCF 121 may then notify the caller that the called partyis not available and terminate the call or forward the call to the voicemail system. It should be noted that the inbound call can be processedin any number of methods based upon the customer's preference. Themethod then proceeds to step 350 to end processing the current call, orreturns to step 310 to continue receiving calls.

It should be noted that although not specifically specified, one or moresteps of method 300 may include a storing, displaying and/or outputtingstep as required for a particular application. In other words, any data,records, fields, and/or intermediate results discussed in the method canbe stored, displayed and/or outputted to another device as required fora particular application. Furthermore, steps or blocks in FIG. 3 thatrecite a determining operation or involve a decision, do not necessarilyrequire that both branches of the determining operation be practiced. Inother words, one of the branches of the determining operation can bedeemed as an optional step.

FIG. 4 depicts a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computersuitable for use in performing the functions described herein. Asdepicted in FIG. 4, the system 400 comprises a processor element 402(e.g., a CPU), a memory 404, e.g., random access memory (RAM) and/orread only memory (ROM), a module 405 for providing privacy for atelephone number in a network, and various input/output devices 406(e.g., storage devices, including but not limited to, a tape drive, afloppy drive, a hard disk drive or a compact disk drive, a receiver, atransmitter, a speaker, a display, a speech synthesizer, an output port,and a user input device (such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, and thelike)).

It should be noted that the present invention can be implemented insoftware and/or in a combination of software and hardware, e.g., usingapplication specific integrated circuits (ASIC), a general purposecomputer or any other hardware equivalents. In one embodiment, thepresent module or process 405 for providing privacy for a telephonenumber in a network can be loaded into memory 404 and executed byprocessor 402 to implement the functions as discussed above. As such,the present method 405 for providing privacy for a telephone number in anetwork (including associated data structures) of the present inventioncan be stored on a computer readable medium, e.g., RAM memory, magneticor optical drive or diskette and the like.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment shouldnot be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, butshould be defined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing a call processing featurefor a disposable telephone number in a network, comprising: receiving,by a processor, a call associated with the disposable telephone number;playing, by the processor, a prerecorded announcement that includes alist of predefined purposes requesting a calling party to identify apurpose of the call; receiving, by the processor, from the calling partya selection from the list of predefined purposes identifying the purposeof the call; determining, by the processor, the call processing featurefor the disposable telephone number in accordance with a filteringfunction based upon the purpose of the call entered by the callingparty, wherein the filtering function is performed in accordance with acustomer's preference for filtering an inbound call based upon anidentity of the caller, wherein the call processing feature isdetermined from a flag associated with a naming authority pointerresource record that indicates the call is to be processed in accordancewith the call processing feature for the disposable telephone number,wherein the naming authority pointer resource record comprises anactivation field that indicates whether the naming authority pointerresource record is active indicating that the naming authority pointerresource record associated with the disposable telephone number that isassigned to a customer can be used or inactive indicating that thenaming authority pointer resource record associated with the disposabletelephone number that is assigned to the customer cannot be used,wherein whether the activation field is active or inactive for eachnaming authority pointer resource record is designated by the customer;and processing, by the processor, the call in accordance with the callprocessing feature for the disposable telephone number and in accordancewith an order field and a preference field associated with each one of aplurality of naming authority pointer resources records assigned to thecustomer, wherein the order field and the preference field are set bythe customer, wherein the preference field determines a preferred orderof the plurality of naming authority pointer resource records fordirecting the call.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer'spreference is received when a customer registers for a service with thenetwork.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer's preferencecomprises a device to be rung when a call is received.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the network is an internet protocol multimediasubsystem network.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer'spreference comprises a blocking of a call from a predetermined list. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the customer's preference comprises aforwarding of a call from a predetermined list of callers.
 7. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality ofinstructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor toperform operations for providing a call processing feature for adisposable telephone number in a network, the operations comprising:receiving a call associated with the disposable telephone number;playing a prerecorded announcement that includes a list of predefinedpurposes requesting a calling party to identify a purpose of the call;receiving from the calling party a selection from the list of predefinedpurposes identifying the purpose of the call; determining the callprocessing feature for the disposable telephone number in accordancewith a filtering function based upon the purpose of the call entered bythe calling party, wherein the filtering function is performed inaccordance with a customer's preference for filtering an inbound callbased upon an identity of the caller, wherein the call processingfeature is determined from a flag associated with a naming authoritypointer resource record that indicates the call is to be processed inaccordance with the call processing feature for the disposable telephonenumber, wherein the naming authority pointer resource record comprisesan activation field that indicates whether the naming authority pointerresource record is active indicating that the naming authority pointerresource record associated with the disposable telephone number that isassigned to a customer can be used or inactive indicating that thenaming authority pointer resource record associated with the disposabletelephone number that is assigned to the customer cannot be used,wherein whether the activation field is active or inactive for eachnaming authority pointer resource record is designated by the customer;and processing the call in accordance with the call processing featurefor the disposable telephone number and in accordance with an orderfield and a preference field associated with each one of a plurality ofnaming authority pointer resources records assigned to the customer,wherein the order field and the preference field are set by thecustomer, wherein the preference field determines a preferred order ofthe plurality of naming authority pointer resource records for directingthe call.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7,wherein the customer's preference is received when a customer registersfor a service with the network.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 7, wherein the customer's preference comprises a deviceto be rung when a call is received.
 10. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the network is an Internetprotocol multimedia subsystem network.
 11. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the customer's preferencecomprises a blocking of a call from a predetermined list.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein thecustomer's preference comprises a forwarding of a call from apredetermined list of callers.
 13. An apparatus for providing a callprocessing feature for a disposable telephone number in a network,comprising: a processor; and a computer-readable medium storing aplurality of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causethe processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:receiving a call associated with the disposable telephone number;playing a prerecorded announcement that includes a list of predefinedpurposes requesting a calling party to identify a purpose of the call;receiving from the calling party a selection from the list of predefinedpurposes identifying the purpose of the call; determining the callprocessing feature for the disposable telephone number in accordancewith a filtering function based upon the purpose of the call entered bythe calling party, wherein the filtering function is performed inaccordance with a customer's preference for filtering an inbound callbased upon an identity of the caller, wherein the call processingfeature is determined from a flag associated with a naming authoritypointer resource record that indicates the call is to be processed inaccordance with the call processing feature for the disposable telephonenumber, wherein the naming authority pointer resource record comprisesan activation field that indicates whether the naming authority pointerresource record is active indicating that the naming authority pointerresource record associated with the disposable telephone number that isassigned to a customer can be used or inactive indicating that thenaming authority pointer resource record associated with the disposabletelephone number that is assigned to the customer cannot be used,wherein whether the activation field is active or inactive for eachnaming authority pointer resource record is designated by the customer;and processing the call in accordance with the call processing featurefor the disposable telephone number and in accordance with an orderfield and a preference field associated with each one of a plurality ofnaming authority pointer resources records assigned to the customer,wherein the order field and the preference field are set by thecustomer, wherein the preference field determines a preferred order ofthe plurality of naming authority pointer resource records for directingthe call.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the customer'spreference is received when a customer registers for a service with thenetwork.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the customer'spreference comprises a device to be rung when a call is received. 16.The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the network is an internet protocolmultimedia subsystem network.
 17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein thecustomer's preference comprises a blocking of a call from apredetermined list.
 18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein thecustomer's preference comprises a forwarding of a call from apredetermined list of callers.